Page 19 - Demo

Natch!5in any direction. You can see it for miles when you%u2019re coming infrom way out there. And when you%u2019re down on the plaza, whereGene and Jean stood looking up, you can barely make outanything above the first twist. I guess you could call the buildingan example of contemporary architecture%u2014lots of glass and bent,polished steel. Rumor has it that Nate leaked the plans to Thena,who, in turn, inspired Watson and Crick to construct that model.Word is that Nate felt that Betty was getting a little too muchpress after Darwin wrote that book On the Origin of yada yadawhich, in his mind, seemed to give a bit too much weight toenvironmental factors and not enough to the adaptable internalitty bits (a statement that Betty says is a complete misreading ofthe theory, by the way). I%u2019m probably oversimplifying the wholeaffair. Those two have been at it for as long as Anyone canremember. At times, they%u2019ve done amazing work%u2014brilliant,original, imaginative, enlightened%u2014and then, at other times,usually when they%u2019re not getting along, well, let%u2019s just say thingshave sometimes gone off the rails.Take the building for example. No one would deny that it%u2019sstriking. On any given day, someone can be heard exclaiming,%u201cWow! What a striking building!%u201d And it is! Its soaring, shiningpresence inspires awe and wonder. Its elegant shape makes itstronger, better able to withstand gusting winds as it soars highinto the clouds. And its twisting shape is also the height offairness%u2014each tower gets an equal amount of space in the sunand shade. But it%u2019s not always the most practical building. Theslanted walls are a bitch for bookcases and credenzas, the arearugs never seem to fit right, and the narrow, curved staircasesmake it hard to maneuver the larger species up and down. We%u2019vehad a whale of a time with dinosaurs, giraffes, elephants%u2014anyonewith a long neck or a big ass. Also, for some odd reason no oneseems to be able to say with any confidence just how many floors